Wolf attacks
Clubroot care
Calves going missing to more wolf predation » PG 3
You can still grow canola if clubroot hits » PG 8
SERVING MANITOBA FARMERS SINCE 1925 | Vol. 75, No. 12 | $1.75
March 23, 2017
manitobacooperator.ca
Beef Producers releases carbon pricing policy
Steinbach dairy is cream of the crop Brent and Kirsty Oswald have been named Manitoba’s Outstanding Young Farmers
The beef industry is part of the solution and must not have punitive profit-killing measures enacted, says MBP
BY ALEXIS STOCKFORD Co-operator staff
BY LORRAINE STEVENSON
C
ottonwood Holsteins, near Steinbach, has been dairying for three generations now. But when Brent and Kirsty Oswald took over the family operation in 2008, big changes were in store — starting with the robots.
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See Steinbach dairyon page 6 »
Co-operator staff
M
anitoba Beef Producers is proposing a carbon pricing policy centred around recognizing its sector as part of the solution. Pastures and grassland play a key role in carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas reduction, the organization said. “We believe we have a valuable role to play in helping Manitoba achieve its goal of reducing GHGs,” said MBP general manager Brian Lemon. MBP’s policy includes six recommendations that call for exempting their industry from paying carbon taxes, investments in research and also policies that encourage agricultural land be maintained in — or returned to pasture and forage lands. Manitoba is currently seeking input on its Climate and Green Plan related to carbon pricing, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, agriculture and land use, and wetland management The beef industry’s sustainability is directly linked to achieving these goals, and it’s critically important this sector remain sustainable if the government’s goals in GHG reductions are going to be met, said Lemon. Key among the six recommendations is an exemption from paying carbon tax for the sector’s on-farm emissions. That kind of additional cost can’t be
PHOTO: THINKSTOCK
passed along and will put an extra economic burden on an industry with already thin margins, Lemon said. The wrong approach is punitive policies that hurt beef producers economically, he said. “Beef producers are price-takers, not price-setters,” he said. “There’s a concern throughout the industry that the burden
of the carbon taxes will be piled on or will be passed along to them. This would be an added economic or competitive burden for our members and threaten the sustainability of their operations especially when we look at given how thin the margins already are.” See Beef producers on page 6 »
Organic farms: Good but no cure-all » PAGE 7
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